his time playing drums and a variety of rock bands. as a rock drummer he was part of several groups, one of which opened for steppenwolf among others for those of us old enough to remember them. his first film, rock and roll about rock music's part about groome and degette to bring communism down is airing this week will continue throughout this year ..

"a patriot's history of the modern world," which in this case is 1898 tedious after the second world war. please join me in welcoming larry schweikart. [applause] >> well, thank you so much to the heritage foundation for inviting me here. it's an honor when i wish my father was alive to see. heritage is one of those great fashions of liberty and explains the collectivism. you probably didn't know you were getting somebody here that was the rock drummer. this became significant learning as a learning experience when i began working on this film. but all along my experience in the rock band were informative. i come astuteness i was in iraq

and and we shared everything, had not been starved. when mike allen and i wrote a history of united states in 2004, we identified three major elements that made up american. nevertheless we never provided a definition of american exceptionalism and during a revision overtime to correct it up for the next addition we hope to be up next year. even in 2004, it seemed a natural progression to new jersey has toured the world especially the modern world. it's the modern world we see the truthfulness of american liberty impressed. he on display and under attack. during amazon book review of patriot history of the united states had met steve dougherty and arkansas businessman historian computer expert from evening shade. we first became a top to bottom review of sidney p. church

history the united states and over time i discovered he's a wonderful co-author, so i asked him to help me with history of the modern world. he proved especially good in areas where it was the tennessee former intelligence officer in the army, he brought a new perspective to the cold war, especially the second volume we are working on now. as john mentioned, this is volume one deficit to 1945 and volume two will be out about this time next year, 1946 to president. i have to warn readers, such as those who see me speak before probably know me for a little more lighthearted insertion, but this is instead dominated by two unspeakably deadly wars sandwiched around a nearly worldwide depression and

characterized by such villains as miscellany, stallman and hitler. i don't even think joe biden cannot get that material. while we have some sidebar section, one of my favorite is a comparison and contrast between the world are to puncture the architects of the day, tony gaudi walter gropius who epitomize nature, god and man and not order a robert pires during race for the north pole. the bulk of this book is dedicated to those political forces that reshape the century. as one who gravitates the great gary, osama said above servers last week at a book signing event when a questioner asked me, who's the most person in your vote? it dawned on me this really isn't a book about the most important people. it's a book about great ideas and terrible ideas can ideas in

the course of the century were tested in the most climactic of ways. but the most important idea who discusses something many writers and intellectuals pay lipservice to. american exceptionalism, but which no one is really defined. we were surprised to find it really wasn't a good definition of american exceptionalism. so i think that their first accomplishment in history at the modern world. re-examine and define american exceptionalism through gentrification of what we call the four pillars. and in the same colors were off largely or even entirely ignored in shaping the post war and world war i and later decolonization of the third world, which is part of the second volume. this book follows a 50 year struggle between those we call constitutionalist who want to strengthen the pillars and

progresses who want to destroy them. what are the four pillars? first, america was founded in the christian religion and predominantly influenced by protestant. by the 20th century catholic, jewish but important role a culture 190000 so fundamentally protestant and even the progressives emerged from the liberal protestant churches. this reinforced the second exceptional pillar, ma, which causes the last given from god to defeat all in bubbles upward to the rulers. kids says the government of the people, by the people and for the people that lincoln referred to peer, my stands in stark opposition to every other nation on earth that is develop some form of civil law and which the

law. germany and england had come them off for a while but by the 20 century, both have more or less abandoned it, germany more so than england. their further the end of world war ii, when europe unloaded, however unwillingly its colony, those colonies themselves to find and print process of the law. thus the first of pillars taken together means that a christian, protestant religion influence and shape everything about america's foundation of law and to find his summa arete. it wasn't just that the united states was a democratic republic, but that the very premise of a democratic republic meant were likely to be far different in the united states than anywhere else. the third in the pillars involves economic freedom.

private property rights with legal titles indeed in a free-market economy. these may seem synonymous, but they are not. as hernando desoto pointed out in many places of the world is a semblance of a free economy at work, but there's no system of title deeds to land or their property. this has two significant effects. first it means property ownership is never secure. you can never be sure government will come around and grab what should have. second it means individuals with deeds and titles can use their land as collateral for business loans. this in turn elicit growth. in 1898, the united states had all four of these pillars. rittenhouse three, was focuses in common law. france germany and most european states had three, the son saw

the religious character already beginning to fade. around the world in africa, asia, latin america committee states at common law and property rights retitle and deeds. america first came to prominence after the spanish-american war ended in 1898. for the first time it's argued largely by leftist historians, and the u.s. acquired an empire with cuba and the philippines. if this were only revealed the deep differences between america and everyone else in history when one of the first things the american congress did after the war was castellon required the united states to give up cuba. one searches in vain for major world powers who ever voluntarily departed from concorde regions. the 20 century dawned a group of liberal elites who embraced the program loosely known as progressivism, challenging these

criticized pillars. mr. has still to common law as president woodrow wilson being a prime example of one who thought the constitution needed to be malleable in direct society. if america stood on the edge of leadership, europe entered a decade which convinced itself or with impossible. the book grand ablution captured the view europeans were too advanced, too sophisticated to fight each other. john maynard keynes at the precipice in this observation about how the world recite together, hot englishman could order from the store steps product from faraway lands and have them delivered to them. it's kind of an early version of thomas friedman still theory, which claims an advanced country that used computers will go to war with each other. i call it the starbucks theory. any two countries that have starbucks and fight. unless they have triple

espressos. another observer, i didn't loss in a much different way posited that we would be so bloody and weaponry so deadly that no one would dare risk a conflict. all of the visas and european leaders of the rational and stretch even in the present day. this of course finished in august 1914, a war sparked by one of the most unlikely of accident when france ferdinand on his way back to his speech in sarajevo turned away from its planned route to the city guard injured in an earlier failed assassination attempt. of course he drove an incident would plunge a world into a nation. i won't tell them the details of world war i. perhaps the most significant aspects of the united states was when america finally entered the work of the british and french hope to insert american piecemeal into the shattered units.

general black jack pershing to his undying credit after they refused, insisting the americans fight as an independent army, which they did. the revival of progressivism came at the versailles conference of 1919 in which wilsonian ideals dominated discussions. but not the actual final arrangements in most cases. practical british clothes of eliminating the german tv or french objectives as a fan base that received both in support so he could institute a league of nations. a feel-good, toothless, unmotivated group of international elites. but wilsonian idealism to play a central role and we facing post-roadmap is millions of people are moved around the continent like chess pieces and borders for change like minds on etch-a-sketch. one participant called people under discussion abstract lumps.

another warned the phrase national self-determination is simply loaded with dynamite. it will raise hopes that can never be realized. thanks for the misery it will cause. british diplomat walked into a study to find david lloyd george, george clemenceau and which are wilson andino for a check not to spread on the carpet. he said they are cutting the baghdad railway. comment this blue hand down upon the map looks like a gorilla of yellow paper. it is upon this ignorant and irresponsible men should be coming asia minor to this is if they were dividing a cake. entire populations were relocated to facilitate national self-determination and democracy was imposed on nations that lack the most basic pillars of exceptionalism. it's hardly a surprise in a

decade a set of acid totalitarian to leadership, unstable, unpopular or undesirable democracy or autocratic regime. rather than blaming communism are progressivism, most of the collapsing states entered their fear and democracy and democratic systems. but the 20s from which produced an astounding level of wealth and high standards in america at a dark side in europe and america through public health programs to quickly morphed into eugenics. concerns about public hygiene mass ieper hostility to the jewish american that minorities in america. as early as 1920 in germany lawyer karl binding and psychiatrist alfred hash called for the destruction of life that is no longer worth living. can you say death panels?

is a doctor's national duty to eliminate, unquote. voluntary sterilization laws were passed in denmark, sweden, and norway, switzerland. britain's report on mental deficiency called those identified with mental disorders a social problem group in both europe and america fuse is lit with eugenics. and america, a group led to such people as margaret sanger, whose journal the birth control review endorsed her friend richard stoddard spoke, quote, the rising tide of color, and against white world supremacy. and from this project is black ministers including adam clayton powell or. england, germany and the united states went far deeper than the

ranting to stoddard or hash. rather they found their way into national and state policy with support from groups such the national committee for mental hygiene, urging sterilization as a means to prevent this class of persons from propagating, unquote. germany used ethereal to see slots to enlist doctors, greatly extending the power of the state into the privacy or in producing a union with the medical profession would be rather easily in the third grade. in germany, one expert observed the more scientific a doctor's outlook was, the more politically naïve he was. it was perhaps the highest of the most sinister irony and american eugenicist, charles davenport, daughter of railroad tycoon a chairman of the eugenics record office in new york, saying quote to fire you

have kindled its going to be a purifying conflagration one day, unquote. his prophecy would come sure only 20 years later in a cost of millions. fairly easy for governments to manipulate public health, medicine and doctors for purposes of family planning. this implemented policies about colonial possessions and citizenship. peoples of egypt, india, algeria and africa clearly did not fit the progressive sea of educated elite and by their definitions were close to life unworthy of life, unquote. but these transit marinate for a decade. in the meantime, american prosperity continues spreading to the rest of the civilized world. american advertisers, film, literature became highly desired in europe. it's another irony at this time. american movie saudi production

codes that emphasize the universal american teens a teacher to some. god, fairplay and avoided sensationalism and other taboo faces. american movies sold american exceptionalism, including puritanical moralism as one observer put it. they occasionally make fun of values to the work of equal such as keaton and charlie chaplin, but this is all done tongue-in-cheek and never was meant to undermine the system is self. by 1930, the u.s. at 18,000 movie houses and compared to francis 2400 britain's 3000. europe simply could not compete with hollywood and as long as hollywood sold american exceptionalism, europeans wanted to be like mike, are in this case like clark gable. but inflation, communist agitation, ethnic unrest and most of all called the postwar

european structure to crumble into the totalitarian moment. spain of course with the civil war was the first to see the future. the fascists rose to power in italy and germany in a totalitarian culture in japan for more assassination awaited anyone who questioned the destiny of japan to rule all of asia. the remaining democracy in europe lacked the will to stop even the weakest of aggressors. when miscellanies successfully crush ethiopia and none of the league of nation states oppose him commit entire notion of collective security was 30 dad and this of course is long before hitler invaded poland. the world war ii, let me briefly say that would save the world in our view was the progressive liberal new deal government at franklin d. roosevelt most likely at the sheer desperation unleash the productive power of free market capitalism to bury

the axis powers in a synonymy of tanks, planes and ships. anyone who's read my books knows statistics just not far from where i teach a tank was built from scratch in four and a half hours. henry kaiser should guard turned out a liberty ship in a record for a half days. that's faster than a student can write another semester papers. this undergirded american military strategy of using weapons and technology to thoroughly pummeled the enemy before an american soldier was sent into battle. the were also exposed the package of japan, which adopted some of the capitalistic reduction methods seen in america, lacked the essential pillars of exceptionalism to employ them fully and more time. without free speech, free

market, constitutional protection of the great inventors and businessmen to try new ideas and feel without punishment japan fell behind the u.s. almost instantly. and for your support, the u.s. produced 15 fleet carriers. japan won. we go into, for example, two guys viewed as failures or at least not very successful guys and that would be andrew jackson higgins who produced an incredible number of craft, a landing craft after the war was harassed them out of business. especially look at people like howard hughes. howard hughes views this giant failure during world war ii because he doesn't produce any weapons that work. he produces what reconnaissance

airplanes. since the whole point. people like howard hughes were necessary syndicated people like henry kaiser. it's only because you have the failures that you know what doesn't work. every time something doesn't work, we know not to go there. we had this and other countries did not commit insisted she win every time or that's going to cause a problem down the line. it's no different than europe. the german miracle of economic reduction was in fact a façade supported by mass conscription but eliminated unemployment, but by 1934 and early 1935, germany's economy was showing back to its pre-hitler status. only imposition of tariffs on eastern europe, which had no other trading partners and the acquisition of vast new land enslaved workers allowed albert s-sierra to sustain production.

even then, germany faced a fatal and hugely ironic reality of reverse love in front, in which undesirable people were flooding back into germany to sustain the war effort of both german soldiers in vast numbers been sent to russia to die. when the germans surrendered in japanese are pushed back to their home islands, the american propensity to save dear human life are wasting cheap wallets and bombs reached at cnet with the dropping of the two atomic bombs. virtually all of the evidence -- recent evidence from american and japanese validates president kerry truman's decision to drop both bombs. japanese leaders did not display the slightest acknowledgment of military reality illustrated by the report of dr. machine. japan's top atomic scientist sent out to hear a shame that

the following day and had to report back to the emperor and he was fast, was this an atomic bomb? then came the line, how long -- attended the response of some of the camp to surrender. truman intended to show japan that he would use any weapon at our disposal. there was no atomic diplomacy. he wanted to show the japanese study was surrender or die. when japan's surrender became the temporary picture of the principles of american exceptionalism worldwide. unlike all the previous empires commit the u.s. is unwilling to dominate the free world the way previous pictures had. that postwar world asked of america shares resources unreservedly, restrain itself economically and rebuild former friends and enemies enthusiastically.

this in turn produce wealth and leisure in western europe, all provided by the protection of the american military. that wealth of nature would in turn a road to their institutions and disciplines needed to maintain, let alone expand freedom and prosperity for others. i went to mention for a moment the role of the soviet union because we take this on as a challenge to match prevailing wisdom. after 1942, the army army overwhelmed or not these. it was nip and tuck in the winter of 1941, 42. one study said just did in 85% outside moscow in winter of 1942 is british. the best fighter plane in 1941,

42 was the play and the americans wouldn't fly the p. 39. resupplied soviets about their radios, all their radio flyer, shipping to provide all that stuff. tracks. all they had to do was get men in uniform and make tanks and artillery, which they did. so yes, they overwhelmed, but it came with the fantastic amount of support from the united states. as american soldiers arrived in england, the four american generals allied army, dwight eisenhower was the supreme commander, but the british constantly denigrated american troops in general and private and public. asked how was he found awake to brush this aside much the way george washington brushed aside his own complaint of subordinates in the revolution

only key moments he put his foot down and essentially told the brakes to stuff it. that didn't stop from becoming a thorn in the sight of all american commanders in europe for the duration of the war. but ike, omar bradley, george patton on managed workarounds to minimize the negative in fact of the war effort. so when the war in, we are expected to supply wealth and prosperity to all be due to the best of our ability and yet this brings with it this irony that by supplying wells and protection, you are eroding the very disciplines necessary to maintain and perpetuate prosperity for yourself and prosperity and freedom for others. therapeutic challenge of the next 75 years in the topic of volume two. how to provide a canopy of liberty and perpetuate american exceptionalism while allowing

just enough of the rain of difficulty and disappointment to remind american and the world that the era in which we have all been blessed with no golden accident. [applause] >> will accept questions from the floor. the rupiah microphones when you're recognized if you're not mind taking your name and affiliation if there is one. is there not a fifth pillar of what i would call the americans. they chose to come to do what they could do for themselves and how was to ask them here now. >> the subject of heated debate among american is because many would argue we've got the tracks come in the famous line from bill murray's movie stripes, where he sang we are the guys

who got kicked out every country in the world and i do agree there's an american spirit contained in the existing world. yes, sir. >> afternoon. much is made in argue of government expenditures at the recent stimulus package, the government expenditures during world war ii. we do address at length in the book. first of all, people need to understand that war is different than people. it's a flask retrieve the. what's a consumer good and worse

time, a tank or a bullet or a bomb. any consumer would gladly forgo other products to buy that if it means they stay of five-hertz of the first thing you have to wreck is incited more time, people are redirecting their purchasing power and efforts away from consumer goods into wartime goods. the second thing i would argue is that in fact world war ii does stimulate, but not for all of the demand keynesian reasons usually given. ..

it's just the opposite of what was argued. >> another question? >> what do you think would address the second volume -- to keep the american exceptional was on a robust idea? >> guest: >> that is a question before us right now and it is how much ethnicity, how much national difference and diversity do you permit without destroying the very elements that permit that diversity to come in the first place, and i think certainly they english-language is one of those things that must be maintained. i think certainly having control

of your borders is absolutely essential. i think that there are a number of cultural issues with religion and so on. charles murray not to give the plug to another book on booktv that charles murray has a book called coming apart, and it deals with these very issues and he shows how segregated our society has become in the last 50 years, not racially but -- i hear this word because i'm not a marxist -- but class y is. i remember growing up in chandler arizona, and my dad was a ranch foreman on a cattle ranch. it didn't make a ton of money but it provided for my college education i don't know how she did but i looked across the street that way and i looked across the street diagonally and one of the richest families with a big farming family the lot next to them was their pool and their pool house yet who is the

guest of the pool every single week? me. two plays monopoly with their kids? me. you don't see that much any more. they're highly insulated and really hit middle america at all either conceptually, culturally in terms of entertainment it's a terrible swift, and that is something we have to repair. >> when you say it's something we need to prepare what would you prescribe to be a fix for that given that undermining the idea of spontaneous order? >> i think all order has certain constraints that it acts within with oxygen, hydrogen so i think that spontaneous stuff has to happen when you have control of your borders and in english

language. let me go back to a previous book to give a plug to that was what the founders say? one of the things we noted or i noted on the section of education that surprised me was almost all of the founders favored some sort of public education. i was getting into that and it didn't happen but what i found was that in the public education, they expected and demanded that certain things would be taught and certain things were math and language skills, but also a patriotic history and this was the phrase that they actually used a history of how great it is to be in america and since i didn't prepare that but for the talk i forget who it was but he said something to the extent of all these other countries are great come all these other countries have stuff, but we are the best and we can't understand them until we understand ourselves and we must teach a patriotic american history. so i think i said in a founding

that in order to have the spontaneity, you need to have a certain construct of structure. >> how would you evaluate fdr's overall? >> disaster. he said america's economy back eight to ten years. there is good evidence now and i call your attention to the study which is not widely cited. the study is one of the hours act and he shows that this act alone probably ensured that we would never get back to 1929 employment under roosevelt. basically he compares the work to the business confidence and business expectations, and what he shows is the number of hours

worked went down while the number of workers stayed constant while the number of hours worked went down. in other words they were going from ten full-time employees to five part-time employees, something along those lines. 85 to 90% of the decline after 1934 when the first wage goes into place can be traced directly to this idea of a minimum wage. in terms of all of the of the regulations and the excessive taxation it is just wondered disaster after another. one of the things we do in the patriot history is have a three page chart the life never seen anywhere else the new deal and the new deal program and we shall what program was, with its original goal was and what it looked like 50 years after and it's amazing that 50 years after all of these things are disasters from banking regulation to minimum-wage to

agriculture when my dad died my mother very free married and i used to the books and i remember getting the government subsidy check and i want to thank you very much for putting me through school, but they were huge and it was ridiculous we were getting these kind of checks but was always part of the agricultural adjustment administration that pays farmers not to go. eustis vince, come on you're going to get paid not to turn in papers. teachers will get paid not to teach the was the equivalent of the agricultural adjustment act. so without that, we might have been sunk without the war because as i said roosevelt really unleashes american business in terms of the free market principles and lets the american businessmen more or less free. >> as you know he is doing a

primary text that you introduce your patronage to the united states to an audience of students who might have grown up on people's history. who do you introduce your work and free of reference to those that might have been presented were started with a different? >> i did have a top called questions and the patriots history of the united states but a couple years ago i did a book called 48 liberal allies of american history. it's a clever title but really what i did is looked the top 20 u.s. history textbooks college textbooks and what i found is that they all without exclusion share certain similar falsehoods like the rosenberg or one favorite one is transcontinental railroads. it never would have been built without government help, and in fact, the candidate barack obama

used that example when he was arguing for yet a computer czar. we need to have a computer czar because they couldn't have been built without government help. excuse me there is a guy named james jay hill and he built the real road without a dime of government support and guess what it's the only one not to feel in the panic of 1873. all of the government support to the real world collapse because they are not profitable. my own students come to me not having read them. i get constant e-mails from people that said we had to read him in school and thank god for your book. i'm sure that they get those kind of messages but i don't introduce it. it's just out there for people to get and we are -- it's interesting we are making a rapid progress towards catching zimm in the last four or five

years. we are on a trajectory to at least catch him pretty soon. he had a 15 year headstart. >> my name is pete dillinger of the atlantic council and i have two questions. number one, your thoughts on how profound the peace conference was specifically carving up the map on the 20th century. and number two, why did you choose the flag raising on the cover of your book? >> number one perhaps next to the new deal hi conference is one of the worst things that the 20th century gives us in a world war ii and did not only is bad from the standpoint of destroying the national entities by moving people around and putting them in a situation where there is going to be inevitable conflict. that is one of the things it does. it destroys the very concept of the collective security because

obviously the league of nations is a monstrous. in terms of the flag raising it seemed very symbolic that as it goes up america is rising to this point of prominence. semper fi. islamic any other questions? >> thank you, larry. >> thank you. [applause] has noted, we do have copies available and larry will be glad to sign them and have additional conversation appear on the panel as well. we thank you all for your kind attention and hope to see you again soon in the future. we are dismissed. for more information visit the authors web site, patiotshistoryusacom dubious so, when arthur goes on

trial in december of 1835 he is very eager to win a conviction. by this time mrs. ford and has come forward and comes to the defense in her love assailant and says in the trial but arthur never lifted the ax and she never believed she intended to hurt her and she felt safe in his presence and she was just drunk and she wanted the whole thing to go away. he was implacable and didn't listen to this. he managed to get other people to override the testimony. so arthur was convicted and there was only one punishment for that which is the death penalty, capital punishment. so arthur goes on to death row and in january of 1836 is sentenced to die in about a month so with the clock ticking

she does something even more unbelievable. it was amazing enough that she testified on arthur's behalf in the criminal trial but now she goes out and starts recruiting her friends in the high society of washington, and she was a very prominent woman with many prominent friends, easy access to the leadership of the country she went to the vice president of van buren and said you should go to office with the president, president jackson and tell him he should pardon arthur. his mother is very good. the execution would be worse than the crime and she couldn't contemplate that he would be executed. he and jackson are unmoved so the class keeps ticking. here is a look at upcoming

book fairs and festivals happening around the country.

gene robinson division of the episcopal and hampshire and first openly gay person elected present his argument for a marriage. this is just under an hour. [applause] >> thank you. i think of this very sophisticated place but sure you had better things to do on a friday night. really. [laughter] i am delighted that i was your

choice tonight. i am just really very honored and it's a special privilege to be introduced by patrick. he is one of my favorite people in the whole world doing some great things. if you haven't bought his book, buy it now. it's fantastic. do we have people here? any harvard people here? okay. well, i am really pleased to be doing this book right now. i have to admit i didn't have time to write a book. i had a day job at least until the end of this year and i retired and i got a call from desmond tutu's the person who

heard me talking about the marriage and we thought this sounds really reasonable and he said i think you've got a book and you. and i said really i don't have time for ret. so we talked about whether or not i should find a ghost writer or something and so there was this wonderful writer who had done a very long profile for gq magazine you don't have to sit expenditures to him and so on and so we got that way to go to and i went and talked to the paper for a week or two and he was going to write the proposal in october, november, december and still, nothing. it turned out that he would

cover memories in his therapy of a horrific situation earlier in his life and was in a paralyzing depression so we had to take this whole book back and i thought now what? we have to put it together and then we got very excited about it and realized actually this book needed to be written in my own voice and illustrated by my own story so that has a funny way of working. i tried to figure out why people came to something and then speak to this made up motivation it's safer to let people ask what they wanted asked and then

actually meeting their needs. we are in an unbelievable moment if you think about this is an exciting time to be alive, especially if it's bisexual transgender it is a thing to be alive at this moment. if you are my age, you knew we grew up never imagining that we would see what we are seeing today. and even the community in the early 90's i remember talking about the whole gay marriage thing, and was a hot item in the community because most people thought that if we were to ask for marriage equal the there would be such a backlash there would be setbacks for years may

be decades and the only person i could remember who was singing that song was the head of the national freedom coalition and he just kept saying if we ask for anything less than marriage, we will be second class forever. he was right and pretty soon others began to sing that song with him and now of course we have what is it, six states in the district of columbia with marriage quality. we have three more states, maryland, maine and washington state who will actually vote on the marriage ecology in early november. if that happens it will be the first time that marriage equality was achieved the about box without a lawsuit and without legislation and so on and we had one state minnesota which is pretty liberal.

after all al franken is their senator. whether or not to add a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. so, it's a big year for this and we also will hear in a week or two which cases the supreme court will take up. there's the whole proposition eight case coming out of california and the ninth circuit, and then write out of boston there's the gay and lesbian advocates and defenders and they are bringing what is the most effective case against the so-called defensive marriage act, doma and we will find out whether the supreme court will take up one or more or any of

those cases and then have -- we should have a ruling by next june. so, is a big moment for marriage and marriage equality and it felt appropriate to write about this and i will tell you a little bit about why intended it for. the book is laid out in the conversation between me and someone who would describe themselves as reasonably tolerant of gay and lesbian people also tolerance isn't all it's cracked up to be. i have a friend who says that the only thing one should have to tolerate is hemorrhoids. [laughter] perhaps a little overstated. but if you for ever been on the receiving end of tolerance it

doesn't feel all that much better than intolerance. if someone is begrudgingly at mending your right to exist it just doesn't feel all that warm and fuzzy. so, i imagine a conversations and i've talked with hundreds of people for the issues and people that are not ready to go all the way to being advocates for marriage a quality and each of the concerns or questions that the greatest forms a chapter in the book and so the idea is when you get to the end of it, you might. you will certainly be invited to be an advocate for marriage equality. so i think -- i hope it will be helpful to people who have those

questions. i think it also might be helpful to parents who are still feeling a little squeamish about their gay and lesbian kids who come home and modeling announce that they are gay but they are getting their it to become married because there in one of the states they can do that or you have a niece or nephew that invited you to his or her wedding and you are just not sure how you are feeling about it or a co-worker or former classmate or whatever. i also hope that the book will provide a script for those of us who are absolutely in favor but sometimes struggled to find the right words to use effective ways of talking people through the issues the marriage brings up. so i am hoping that it will have a lot of different uses. while we have made unbelievable

progress what's also pause to remember we have kids jumping off bridges. one of the things in cambridge massachusetts we live in a bubble and if you don't live on one of the two coasts or in an urban area, you are very likely to experience the kind of attitudes that existed 50 years ago and if you are a kid at least you can find out there are other people like you that you are not the only person in the world experiencing what you are experiencing but still it's really tough out there and for all of the progress that we have made, we still have way too much bullying and depression and attended the suicide

particularly in our young people so it's important to remember that it's not like cambridge word new england. we are seeing remarkable progress in some of our religious institutions. in the episcopal church i am happy to say we have now ordained its second day bishop as los angeles so the church has decided this is where we are headed and there we go and at this summer's general convention added people to those groups that will not be discriminated against and are acceptable as the leaders priests and bishops. i would have thought it would

have taken another three years to the next convention, but we have moved a long way and only since, so the presbyterians and lutherans are coming along close behind. the methodists on the other hand have some work to do, and we are working with them. but we also have huge denominations that are not making progress on this as the best we can tell i believe was the archbishop in washington just yesterday said that literally said this that gay marriage and the state of washington with the basically be the end of civilization as we know right. and i believe we still describe

this as intrinsically disordered the southern baptists are not exactly applauding for us either recently i was invited to a huge megachurch in san diego and they were doing a whole weekend on marriage, and the pastor had basically led the effort on proposition 8 in california. to his credit as the last event on this weekend of marriage i was part of a panel on a one-sided and a couple of really conservative people on the other

side. so i decided that i wanted to worship with them on that sunday morning. i wanted to worship somewhere and i thought this will perhaps give me some insight into them and so on. it was a shocking experience. i arrived at the brand new 28 million-dollar facility. i walked in and there was a cafe on the right that makes starbucks look like a sidewalk lemonade stand. and i said to one of the ushers okay if i take my latte with me? there is a cup holder of every seat. [laughter] the seats are we more comfortable than what you are sitting in here. there was nothing in